While every advisor aspires to expand their practice in the New Year, it takes more than hope to achieve consistent, exponential growth. You need a plan, and that plan should be built upon a measurable foundation. If you do the right math, you can illuminate the steps you need to take to reach the new heights you desire.

Start by having an honest conversation with yourself. You likely have a business plan, but sticking to it and acting upon it can be difficult for a number of reasons. For 2017, challenge yourself to not only identify the path you need to take but to take the steps necessary to achieve your goals.

Let’s start with two questions: How much revenue did you generate in 2016, and how much would you like to generate in 2017?

Next, be honest with yourself. Are you going to put in the leg work?

The difference between these two gives us the ground you need to cover to reach your goal. Next, find your average revenue per new client to estimate how many new clients you need to acquire in 2017 to reach your goal. Within reason, we can assume that if you do next year what you did last year, you can expect to see about the same results. The plan we are going to make will address that new growth that you desire.

All of this is straightforward, and most advisors get this far, but our aim is to understand the steps you need to take to make those sales figures a reality. You know how many new clients you need, yes, but what will you do to get them? You might get some referrals. Those can be lucrative, but they are not dependable. You cannot accurately predict how many referrals you will receive. Stimulating that activity should still be part of your plan, of course, but the results will be far too inconsistent to become the sole piece of a reliable new business strategy.

If you want new business, you have to find it. This is where new business math gets interesting. How much leg work will you have to do to get the sales that you need?

Really. Be honest here.

One of the producers we’ve met through our work tells a story of getting his start (in the early 90s). He describes building a list of 500 leads and the grind of cold calling one after the other. Out of 500, he would set an average of 12 appointments. 4 of those 12 would meet, and 1 sale would ultimately be made. 12-4-1. Week in. Week out.

How much time it takes to develop new business from scratch is a metric that many advisors don’t track. We do. We know that a salesperson that specializes in cold calls needs about 50 hours of cold calling per month to set 6 appointments. 5 of those appointments will meet, and 4 will be qualified. A truly exceptional salesperson will close 25 percent of these opportunities (and that’s a really high conversion rate by almost any standard).

So if you need to close 10 sales to reach your 2017 goal, you will need 40 meetings with the right prospects, or the equivalent of 500 cold calling hours. To put those hours into perspective, if you have a 40-hour work week, you will need to set aside a little over 3 months, exclusively, to cold calling in order to generate the new business growth you desire.

That’s a lot, especially for an established advisor with an existing base of clients to service. If engaging completely new prospects is not your forte, which is not unusual, you might need even more time to develop these opportunities.

You want the new business, but do you want to do this volume of cold calling at this stage of your career? Fortunately, there are other ways to tackle this challenge. Here are your options:

You can opt not to grow and maintain your status quo.

You can do the calling yourself.

You can buy leads to cut down a small portion of the upfront research.

You can partner with an appointment setting firm to shortcut directly to meeting to qualified prospects.

You can ramp up your seminar activity to attract new prospects.

You can establish new partnerships (like with CPAs) to generate more referrals.

Option one is not acceptable. If you aren’t growing, you are giving your competition opportunities to expand. For an established advisor, option two is likely impractical. As we discussed before, it takes a significant amount of time to set a meeting, which also is the weakness of option three. Buying leads, in theory, is a happy medium between pure cold calling and appointment setting. Unfortunately, most leads are of a poor quality, leaving you to spend just as much time cold calling as you would have if you had started from scratch on your own.

That leaves options four through six. If you are chasing B2B opportunities where the sales are potentially large, appointment setting is the clearest, most direct path to growth. It allows you to get in front of the volume of prospects that you need to meet your goals without sacrificing huge quantities of your already limited time. At the same time, seminars and strategic partnerships can connect you with new prospects without feeling as brutally soul-crushing as hours of cold calling can feel.

Meet Our Leaders

Endorsements

The PT Services Group gets it! They worked with us to define our key markets then generated a new business development strategy to ensure the results we needed. After just one year of service, new commercial applications are up 37% and new commercial Direct Written Premium is up 25%! We are looking forward to continued success partnering with our amazing team at The PT Services Group.

Deborah W | Summerfield, NC | PT Client since 10/1/2014

I have been in the financial and 401(k)/retirement business for over 25 years and it is extremely difficult to find time to prospect for qualified business appointments. The PT Services Group has consistently provided qualified business appointments month in and month out. PT Services is different from their competitors. Their associates are well educated about the products I am presenting which leads to highly productive meetings. I have had several new prospects tell me personally that they scheduled an appointment with me because of the nice and friendly mannerism of the PT Services personnel. I credit PT with helping me get new business in the door and am extremely grateful for this new approach to business.

We have worked closely with The PT Services Group since 2007, and the results have been impressive. Activity is the key to most sales organizations growing, and The PT Services Group is an integral part of our prospect activity each month. Their system delivers results, and their people are easy to work with and flexible. I look forward to many more years with PT and to seeing where our partnership takes us in the future!

“I am so impressed with your Marketing Associates’ desire to understand our business and to use that knowledge to secure quality leads for our agency. Our industry has changed drastically over the past few years and your commitment to staying on top of the changes certainly sets you apart from other typical telemarketing firms. It is no wonder you are able to secure appointments when others can’t. Our appointments are well qualified and always handled with the utmost professionalism. “

I’ve been in the insurance and financial services arena for 30 years and have never partnered before with a company that has made such an impact on my business. The PT Services Group confirms and qualifies my appointments, which allows me time to focus on my clients and their goals. This in turn has a direct effect on selling and making money. The PT Services Group has become my number one source of new clients.

Tim A | Tim A | Lafayette, LA | PT Client since 2005

PT has been great at providing consistent activity with qualified business owners who are open to a conversation about business succession planning. My ongoing campaign with PT is a good complement to my other sources of prospects, such as referrals, in building a healthy pipeline of new business opportunities. Their professionalism and genuineness make for a solid partnership.

I just returned from an appointment set by The PT Services Group – another good appointment I should add. I decided to take a look at what The PT Services Group has meant to my practice, not only over the past year, but over the entire time our firms have worked together. Here’s what I found: – The PT Services Group is directly responsible for over 40% of my agency’s $5 million book of business. Of the 88 appointments that I have met with, I rated 77 (86%) as either highly qualified or qualified. As you can see, The PT Services Group has indeed had a very significant impact on my firm, and for that I sincerely thank you.

Tom S

The PT Services Group has been a consistently reliable, professional, responsive, and results-driven partner in my marketing efforts… Because of your marketing associates’ efforts, I have sold several sizable cases that I would not have seen without the help of The PT Services Group. The PT Services Group has played an important role in the development of my client base, and my ROI from your services certainly warrant my continued association with your organization.

Rick F

One of the biggest concerns I had when I hired The PT Services Group was perception from prospective clients when they get a call. If the first impression isn’t good, the chances for success are low indeed. I am pleased to report that I have had numerous comments from prospective clients about the person who called them and how professional they were. They’ve commented about how many times they get contacted on a daily basis by others seeking their time but somehow they felt the call from our firm (The PT Services Group) was different. That’s why I have continued working with The PT Services Group.

Boyce L

We were one of the first firms to utilize The PT Services Group’s Qualified plans calling program and we have been using their services as a supplement to our own marketing efforts ever since. They exceeded my expectation in terms of quality of appointments and the size of the prospects that they have been able to get us in front of. They have also played a key role in helping our firm establish business in a new geographic market. PT Marketing can make a real difference in increasing your pipeline.

Join Our Conversation

Like, follow or subscribe to learn more about our company, our services and our culture.

Our data collection programs are custom-built to serve our clients' needs. We use our data gathering services to optimize databases and to verify contact lists but are able to adapt our expertise to fit your needs. Connect with us today to learn how we can open new doors for your business, or contact John Pojeta (412-291-6685), our VP of Business Development, to discuss how The PT Services Group can benefit your business.

Your payment and personal information is always safe. Our Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) software is the industry standard and among the best software available today for secure commerce transactions. It encrypts all of your personal information, including credit card number, name, and address, so that it cannot be read over the internet.

Any requests for refund must be directed to the Finance Department within 5 business days at 800-999-8995.